Letter: MS Meunier

Letter MS Meunier

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Shelfmark
MS Meunier
Primary Language
Hebrew

What's in the PGP

  • 1 Transcription
  • 1 Translation

Description

Letter from the maternal uncle of Abū l-Ṭayyib Ṭov b. David to the Tustarī brothers, Abū l-Faḍl Sahl, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf, and Abū Sahl Saʿīd b. Yisraʾel b. Yaʿaqov. The traveler is from Amūl in Ṭabaristān and claims to be around 80 years old. He may be writing from Aleppo. His father, Sulaymān, had died in Āmul. He set out westward, declaring that he too expected to die on the road ("I will lie down with my fathers"), and made his way to Baghdad, where he deposited 150 Maghrebi dirhams of high-quality, minted silver with Shelomo b. Aharon, who arranged two bills of exchange (suftajas), one of 100 dirhams payable to the three Tustarī brothers in Damascus and one of 50 dirhams payable to Sahlawayh b. Ḥayyim. A friend in Damascus, Ṣedaqa b. ʿAmram al-Raḥbī, was supposed to facilitate the transfers. The journey then unraveled and he was stranded in Tikrīt for six months, where he exhausted his fifty dirhams of travel funds and had to return to Baghdad to renegotiate. Shelomo b. Aharon reduced the suftaja for Sahlawayh from 50 to 30 dirhams, apparently pocketing the difference of 20 as a fee for provisions. The writer then spent a full year on the road before reaching Aleppo, arriving destitute and dependent on the local Jewish community for food. In Aleppo, he heard disturbing news about the Tustarī brothers and Damascus, but he leaves this unclear. The letter is in a fairly stiff, biblicizing Hebrew and is essentially an anxious accounting of what happened to the money entrusted to him, invoking his nephew Abū l-Ṭayyib Ṭov b. David as a witness who can corroborate his version of events. It closes with an appeal to the brothers to speak with Abū l-Ṭayyib directly. He appears to be trying to prove that he was not negligent with other people's money, while his own situation has become desperate. Very interesting from the point of view of how bills of exchange worked internationally. Also interesting is that the writer — a native Persian speaker — writes suftajā with a צ instead of a ג as in Arabic. The manuscript was once in the possession of the secretary of the Egyptian Geographical Society, a certain Meunier; it was still there when Itzhak Ben Zvi edited the text in 1938, but hasn't been seen since, and searches for a photograph in the archives of the Ben Zvi institute yielded nothing. It appears to have no entry in FGP. MR

Related People

Mentioned
Abū l-Ṭayyib Ṭov ben David, Sahlawayh b. Ḥayyim
Recipient
Abū l-Faḍl Sahl b. Yisraʾel b. Yaʿaqov al-Tustarī, Abū Sahl Saʿīd b. Yisraʾel b. Yaʿaqov al-Tustarī, Abū Yaʿqūb Yosef b. Yisraʾel b. Yaʿaqov al-Tustarī

Related Places

Mentioned
Aleppo, Āmol, Baghdād, Damascus, Egypt (region), Shūshtar, Ṭabaristān

Tags

Additional metadata

Collection
Ben Zvi Institute
Input date
In PGP since 2023
Image
Transcription
Translation

MS Meunier recto

°
recto
Moshe Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael‎ (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv University, 1997), vol. 2.

Recto

  1. [                                                  ]תי זה 
  2. [                                                  ]ו הושיעם 
  3. [                                                  ]ח גמלנו 
  4. [מ]עשה פשע עשה [                   ] פנינו [א]חר יצרינו 
  5. יסרנו עינ[י נגרה       ] ואבדנו עד ישקיף ויראה 
  6. וירחם עלינו רחמיך יקדמונו [     ] חטאנו למענך עשה
  7. ולמען ברית אבותינו אברהם ויצחק [יעקב זכר את] בריתו
  8. אל שלשה אחים ה[                             ]יקים
  9. אבו אלפצל ואבו יעקב ואבו סהל סהל ויוסף וסעיד בני ישראל בן יעקב 
  10. אשר ממדינת שושתר יחייהם אל אלהי עולם בזכות אבותם
  11. וישמרם ויעזרם וימלטם מכל צרה ויגון ואנחה דכתיב ו[פדו]יי ייי ישבון
  12. דעו אחינו ויקירינו כי בימי זקנותי באתי מן מדינת [טב]רסתאן
  13. מן אמול נקרא שמה כי אבי שלמה זכרו לברכה הלך שמה ומת
  14. ועזבתי את ביתי ואת בני ואחי ומשפחתי ואמרתי ושכבתי עם
  15. אבותי ובאתי אל בגדאד נעניתי בדרך והלך ממני חציו מן זהב
  16. בשביל שבתות ונשאר מעט מהרבה עשו אנשים טובים
  17. כי הנשאר תתן בסופתצא ואמרו כי לאיש כזה בגדאד משורה
  18. כמר שלמה בן אהרן בגדאדי הלכתי אל אצלו שוק לולו וביתו
  19. במחלת בעלי טויל ונתתי לו מאה וחמשים דרכמונים מגרבי
  20. כלו ככר צרב אלאבכר אמר לי כי בשלשה ירחים תוכל
  21. ללכת שמחתי כי אני עיף וזקן כמו שמונים שנה ויגעתי בדרך לא
  22. אוכל ללכת אל מצרים אמר כי יש לו בארץ דמשק אוהב ותצאר
  23. איש טוב שמו צדקה בן עמרם בן פינא רחבי קודם לך כי
  24. תבוא בדמשק הוא ישלח אל שלשה אחים ויתן אליך ואני
  25. קבלתי ממנו ובחמשים אל סהלוי בן חיים כתב
  26. ולכם מאה דרכמונים 
Marina Rustow's digital translation.

Recto

  1. [                                           ] this
  2. [                                           ] He has saved them
  3. [                                           ] He rewarded us
  4. he committed a sinful [a]ct [             ]. We have pursued our evil inclination. 
  5. He has chastised us, and [my] eyes [are weeping]. We perish until He looks down and sees (cf. Lam. 3:50).
  6. May He have mercy on us. May your mercies come before us (cf. Ps. 79:8). We have sinned. Act for Your sake (cf. Dan. 9:19). 
  7. For the sake of the covenant of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, [Jacob] remember his covenant (cf. Lev. 26:42).
  8. To the three brothers [of the Tustarī family] ...
  9. Abū l-Faḍl, Abū Yaʿqūb, Abū Sahl—Sahl, Yosef, and Saʿīd, sons of Yisraʾel b. Yaʿaqov, 
  10. who are from the city of Shushtar, may God the eternal keep them allive by the merit of their fathers,
  11. guard them, help them, and deliver them from all trouble, grief, and woe, as it is said, "And [the redeem]ed of the Lord shall return" (Isa. 35:10, 51:11).
  12. Know, our brothers and dear ones, that in my old age, I have come from the land of [Ṭab]aristān,
  13. from Amūl, as it is called, for my father, Shelomo of blessed memory, went there and died,
  14. and I left my house, my sons, my brothers, and my family, and I said: "I will lie down with
  15. my fathers" (cf. Gen. 47:30), and I came to Baghdad. I was afflicted on the way, and half my gold disappeared
  16. on account of sabbaths, and little remained from much. People bestowed benefactions,
  17. since what remained could be given in a suftaja. They said: "For such a man, Baghdad is from the line of
  18. the honorable teacher and master Shelomo son of Aharon Baghdadī. I went to him at the Pearl Market (Sūq Luʾluʾ). His house
  19. is in Maḥallat Baʿalei Ṭawīl. I gave him one hundred fifty Maghribī drachmas,
  20. entirely a talent (kikar) finely minted (ḍarb al-abkar). He told me: "In three months, you will be able
  21. to go." I rejoiced, for I am weary and aged, as if I were eighty years old, and I was exhausted on the way. I am not
  22. able to go to Egypt. He said that in the Shām (lit. in the land of Damascus), he has a friend and merchant,
  23. "a good man named Ṣedaqa son of ʿAmram son of Pīnā Raḥbī. Before you, when
  24. you come to Damascus, he will send (it) to the three brothers and give (it) to you." I
  25. received (it) from him, and he wrote one for fifty to Sahlawayh ben Ḥayyim,
  26. and for you, (one of) one hundred drachmas.

MS Meunier verso

°
verso

Verso

  1. בשנת שעא בחדש סיואן קודם חודש סיואן נתתי לסולימאן בן
  2. בן(!) אהרן יחייהו אל כי הוא איש מן טובים וירא שמים והלכתי  
  3. מן בגדאד עם סופתצא מאה אצלכם וחמשים אצל
  4. סהלוי בן חיים יחייהו אל והלכתי אל תכרית וחמשים דינר
  5. אשר בשביל צדה לדרך עמי היה לבד מאה וחמשים 
  6. ונשארתי בתכרית ששה חדשים ויחסר דרכמונים 
  7. אשר עמי חזרתי אל בגדאד אל שלמה בן אהרן ואמרתי
  8. כי לי חאצת בסבב צדה לדרך בעשרים לקח סופת<צ>א
  9. אשר כתב בחמשים זהובים ונתן בשלושים אל
  10. סהלוי בן חיים לקחתי ונשארתי בדרך שנה אחד עד באתי בחלב 
  11. צובה ושמעתי שמועה רעה אצלכם ואל דמשק ונאנחתי מאד 
  12. וכל אשר עמי הלך ונצר<כ>תי אל אנשי ישראל בלחם
  13. ועשו לי טובה ובקשתי מן אלהי ישראל רחמים בשבילי ובשביל
  14. מאמוני ודרכמוני כי לקחתי בהלואה כי אתן בדמשק והיה עמי
  15. בן אחותכם אבו אלטייב טוב בן דויד והוא ידע כל הדבר כי
  16. נתתי לו קרץ ארעבה וחצי דרכמונים והיה [                      ] בעל 
  17. לשון ול[                  ] ומן השו[                       ] יראת [                      ]
  18. וכל אשר עמי [                                                               כת]ב 
  19. שלמה בן אהרן אצל צדקה ב[ן עמרם                     ]
  20. עמי כי על מותני היה ולא [                ]ע [             ] אחינו [           ] סופת<צ>א
  21. של[                      ] שך כי
  22. עלה [                                                                ] שמועה חיים בלא 

Verso, right margin

  1. דברו את אבו אלטייב בן אחותכם טוב [בן] דויד תשתרי [ ] והיו [

Verso

  1. In the year 371, in the month of Sivan — before the month of Sivan — I gave (money to) Sulaymān ibn 
  2. {ibn} Aharon, may God keep him alive, since he is one of the good people and is God-fearing, and I traveled
  3. from Baghdad with a suftaja of one hundred (dirhams) on your account and fifty on
  4. Sahlawayh ben Ḥayyim's, may God keep him alive, and traveled to Tikrīt. I also had fifty dinars
  5. for provisions for the road with me, apart from the one hundred fifty.
  6. I stayed in Tikrīt for six months and ran out of the drachmas
  7. that I had with me. I returned to Baghdad to Shelomo ben Aharon and told him
  8. that I was in need of provisions for the road. For twenty, he took the suftaja
  9. that he had written for fifty gold coins and gave (it) for thirty to
  10. Sahlawayh b. Ḥayyim. I took (it) and stayed on the road for one year until I arrived at Aleppo.
  11. I (then) heard bad news about you (pl.) and (about?) Damascus, and I was greatly distressed.
  12. Everything I had with me was spent. I became dependent on the Jewish community for bread.
  13. They treated me kindly. I begged the God of Israel for mercy for myself and for
  14. my money and my drachmas, since I had taken (money) as a loan so that I could repay in Damascus. With me
  15. was your sister's son Abū l-Ṭayyib Ṭov b. David. He knows the whole matter, since
  16. I gave him a qirḍ of four and a half drachmas. He was [        ]
  17. well-spoken [                 ] and among the [              ] fear [of Heaven].
  18. Everything that was with me [                                                 ]
  19. Shelomo ben Aharon [wro]te on the account of Ṣedaqa b[en ʿAmram                ]
  20. with me, for it (the suftaja) was upon my loins and not [                 ] our brothers [              ] suftaja
  21. of [                        ] cheque, since
  22. went up [                      ] rumor alive without

Verso, right margin

  1. Speak with Abū l-Ṭayyib, your sister's son, Ṭov [ben] David and buy [              ] and be [        ]

Ben Zvi Institute, MS Meunier. Available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/39110/ (accessed March 10, 2026).